Dermatology Resident Basic Exam Scores Are Correlated With American Board of Dermatology Certification Examination Outcomes in the New Certification Model

Background The format of the American Board of Dermatology (ABD) exams has now changed with a self-assessment Basic Exam in the first year of dermatology residency, followed by certification Core Exams during residency and the Applied Exam after completion of residency. Objective To determine if the Basic Exam scores correlate with performance on the new certification exams in dermatology. Methods Deidentified examination data from residents between 2018 and 2023 was obtained from the ABD. The basic exam scores between those who passed and failed the certification exams were analyzed. The optimal threshold for Basic Exam scores was then calculated using a receiver operating characteristic curve. Results For the 1585 residents included, there was a statistically significant difference in Basic Exam performance for those who passed and failed the certification exams (p < 0.001). The threshold cutoff varied by certification exam with a total Basic Exam score range of 75.55 to 79.55 and percentile rank range of 22%-38%. Limitations Demographic data was not available to include in the analysis. Conclusion The Basic Exam performance correlates with certification exam performance. The average threshold of total score of 78.5 and percentile rank of 31.4% would capture 77% of residents who failed the certification exams.